As Cold As Stone
by MarisolM
Summary: Lily Evans thought she was no different from other Hogwarts students, but she was wrong. And she wasn't alone.
1. Boarding the Hogwarts Express

NOTE: This deals with young Lily, Snape, James, Malfoy, Black, etc. Of course any familiar names are JKR's - not mine. Enjoy!  
  
Chapter 1  
  
"Have you got all your books, dear?"  
  
"Yes, Mum, I hope so!" Lily was frantically throwing her backpack over her shoulders while she received a small napkinfold of fruitcake from her mother.  
  
"Alright then, you should hurry up, your father's waiting outside!" Mrs. Evans brushed the girl's wavy red hair with a hand before giving her a huge hug and kiss.  
  
"Bye, Mum! I'll write to you every week, I promise!"  
  
"Have a wonderful time - make lots of friends."  
  
"I will. Bye Petty!" Lily gave a slight hug to her older sister Petunia, who didn't say a word.  
  
"Goodbye dear!" Mrs. Evans replaced with a smile as Lily went out the open door.  
  
"See you on holiday!" And with that final farewell, Lily jumped into the front seat of their family car, her Dad reversed out of the driveway, and she was off to King's Cross Station.  
  
To her, it seemed like all summer had passed in a day's length; ever since that mysterious letter arrived for her in mid-July, nothing within the Evans household had been the same. Mr. Evans had taken extra days off of work to research the best bargains for wizardry parchment and robes, and Mrs. Evans couldn't help talking to her girlfriends about her grandmother witch and how she used to travel all over the world. Lily, though incredibly nervous being on her own, couldn't imagine the "adventures that lay before her", as Mrs. Evans would say every night until then.  
  
Lily knew about this magical place ever since she and Petunia heard stories about their great-grandmother, Gwyndolen, and her travels to find certain ingredients for charmwork. Petunia found the ideas hard to believe, since neither of the girls had even met her before. Lily, on the other hand, felt like she'd known Granny Gwyn all her life after reading a few pages in her Incredulous Charms of the Century book for school. "I can't wait to be a witch!" she said to herself, as the car pulled up to King's Cross Station.  
  
Mr. Evans unloaded the car trunk with all of Lily's things, carried them to a little cart, and pushed it alongside Lily towards the intended Platform 9 3/4. When they arrived near Platforms 9 and 10, only Lily could see a group of kids making line to get onto the magical platform.  
  
"Well, I guess this is where I leave you to go," Mr. Evans implied a bit sadly, and moved the cart over to Lily. She hugged him tightly. "Take care of yourself, alright?"  
  
"Okay." Lily gave her dad a small peck on the cheek and slowly pushed the cart towards the line. "Bye Dad!" she called after him.  
  
Mr. Evans waved a last goodbye to Lily, then left for the car.  
  
The line for the platform barrier had moved rather quickly, and the little girl brushed her long hair with hands to spare the time. As the students pushed their carts toward the red brick wall and disappear, Lily found it quite funny. It seemed strange, really, that people around them didn't make the slightest reaction, but the group of students continued to disappear through the wall as if it were merely crossing a street.  
  
Once her turn came, Lily nervously got hold of her cart. "Here goes," she thought, then ran with all her might towards the platform.  
  
CRASH!!!  
  
Lily screamed as her cart slammed squarely with the wall, her bags leaping out to the ground. And with the giggling that came afterwards, she wished she could melt into the stone floor.  
  
"Look here! Another Mudblood, if you ask me!" laughed a raspy voice. Lily glanced at the boy, who had incredibly white-blonde hair. "Why don't you walk home. It'll be less painful."  
  
Lily blushed and hid her face under her messed-up bangs, wondering if her father had left the station yet. She would have made a run for it right then and there, only--  
  
"Give it a rest, Malfoy......Are you okay?" another young boy then crouched over Lily.  
  
"I'm fine," she lied with a whimper, lifting herself up. Lily started putting her things back onto the cart as an excuse to not show her splotchy face.  
  
The laughing then faded away, but the same boy reluctantly remained where he stood. "Here, let me help," he advised after Lily struggled to lift her heavy trunk back onto her cart. With one lift they both managed to move it into place.  
  
"Um, thanks," Lily said shakily, finally brave enough to meet his light brown eyes. He wasn't much taller - perhaps the same age, too - and his angular face reminded her of a cute elf.  
  
"Don't get scared - Malfoy likes giving first-years a hard time. You just need to relax." The boy smiled encouragingly and moved the cart handle to her. "Just pretend it's not there, it's simple," he referred to the wall, right before Lily took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and ran towards the platform again.  
  
She felt as if her stomach was being pulled forward, but when she heard a train engine fueling the next second, she breathed pure relief.  
  
After luggage check and ticket retrieval, Lily walked alongside the front part of the train, reading the "HOGWARTS EXPRESS" sign painted in gold letters. It must have been only a few minutes until the warning whistle was blown and she ran to a seating compartment.  
  
Finding a spare seat in the train was the next challenge for her, not only because they were full, but because she always got butterflies when sitting next to strangers. She peered into one stall - hoping it was empty - but it had girls talking like long-time friends. She then peered into the next stall, noticed the white-blonde boy, and left immediately.  
  
"I've got to find somewhere to sit!" Lily panicked, feeling the engine warming up under her feet. At the corner of the compartment, she saw the profile of the boy who helped with her cart and almost leaped for joy! But as she got closer, she noticed he was very much in company - three boys were talking and laughing along with him in the stall.  
  
She turned around, feeling hopeless, but then noticed the stall door that faced her; it looked completely deserted - and was the perfect place to gaze at that nice boy! The train lunged forward, which cued her to open the stall door in a heartbeat. She slammed it shut and propped her backpack onto the cushioned seat, but it only took her a few seconds to gasp when seeing there was somebody else on the other seat.  
  
"Oh!" she squeaked in reaction. "I--I didn't think......"  
  
The occupant just stared at her like a statue. He was lying down with a book over his stomach as if he was near napping, but obviously got interrupted.  
  
"Sorry....." Lily continued, noticing the boy's strange combination of pale skin and black hair. "Um...I'll find someplace else...."  
  
"First-year, right?" the boy spoke up.  
  
"What? Oh...yes," she replied, now feeling very uncomfortable.  
  
"Me too," the boy said, sitting himself up. "I'd eat dirt before knocking on their door," he pointed to the stall across the hallway, "they'd probably give me a hex or something."  
  
Lily forced a small laugh, not really knowing what he was talking about.  
  
"Besides, there's more space in here anyway."  
  
"Um, I guess so." Lily then sat stiffly onto the cushion, wondering how anyone's hair could be that dark. The boy looked at her oddly.  
  
"Which line are you?"  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"Line - wizard family?"  
  
"Oh, um.....well my great-grandmother, Gwyndolen, she was a witch....I don't remember her maiden name...."  
  
The narrowed his eyes at the girl, as if he were reading her mind.  
  
"So you're a Muggle-born?"  
  
Lily had heard the term 'muggle' before from her mother, but she didn't know whether or not to take this one personally. The girt just nodded, downheartedly, wishing she'd been related to Merlin or somebody like---  
  
"Well that makes two of us."  
  
"Really?" Lily's green eyes lit up for the first time.  
  
"Yeah, my grandfather was last in my line (until now, of course). Lucifer Snape - he went to Hogwarts too, and Dumbledore was his professor back then. This'll be strange." The boy turned his head to the window, briefly admiring the moving countryside.  
  
Lily knew about the famous Headmaster Dumbledore from her mother's telling (apparently, she had researched on the school quite a bit).  
  
"What did he study after Hogwarts?" Lily attempted, trying to avoid silence.  
  
"Potions mostly," the boy said, still gazing at the window, "He worked for the British Society of Manual Magic a while, and they named him Grand Master."  
  
"That's incredible," Lily said, feeling foolish. Yet the boy didn't show a sign from it.  
  
"He's retired now, living in Ireland," he added.  
  
Lily did not understand how the Magical World could be so complex, yet so hidden from ordinary people. The idea of becoming a famous witch was intriguing to her, yet how would she explain that to her old friends back at home?  
  
The girl brushed a few strands of her red hair with a hand (which came as a habit). She remembered how her mother hugged her tightly after finding that strange letter in July; it was then that Lily had noticed a certain spark in her mother's eyes, and she had begun to tell stories of their Magical Ancestry as if she had known about it forever. Indeed, this turning-point was exciting for Mrs. Evans as much as it was for Lily.  
  
It was like all of Mrs. Evans' wishes - all of her dreams that were building up since childhood - were beginning to take form on her younger daughter.  
  
There was a long pause in the stall, and Lily's back swished from the train's movement. She thought about the nice boy from the other stall, recapturing his cute dimples when he had smiled at her---  
  
"Funny, it's not so common nowadays," the boy then commented.  
  
"What is?"  
  
"Muggle-borns. I heard there was only one in last year's class. She was hexed on the whole term."  
  
"That's awful!" Lily said, a bit too dramatic, "Um....do you think that....that we might......?"  
  
"I doubt it, the Wisps usually aim at a loner."  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"Just a Slytherin gang - Malfoy's the leader, naturally."  
  
"Malfoy?" Lily remembered, "He -- he called me something --'Mudblood.'"  
  
The boy's head turned towards Lily curiously, and she blinked.  
  
"Er....is that bad?"  
  
He just stared, thinking.  
  
"I...don't know...I've never heard it before--" It was an awkward moment then as Lily wondered what the boy must have been thinking, but a loud KNOCK KNOCK came from the door, and she almost jumped off her seat.  
  
"Anything off the cart, dears?" an elderly woman bellowed into the stall.  
  
Lily breathed in relief, and the boy laughed amusingly.  
  
"What have you got?" he then asked, and the woman opened the door and showed them a variety of pastries and sweets that neither of the two had ever seen.  
  
"Er....I'll have a peach cobbler...you want half?" he asked Lily.  
  
"Oh, thank you," she replied as the boy handed the trolley woman some bronze coins. Lily tasted the cobbler, and a smile told him it was delicious.  
  
"I'm Lily," she said quickly so not to blush.  
  
"Severus," the boy exchanged simply, and another pause came as the boy reopened the gray hardcover book that was next to him.  
  
"So what are you reading?" Lily then asked.  
  
"Skimming, really - it's Lexington's book: Surviving the Damiene Mist and Other Phenomena."  
  
"Oh, doesn't he teach Defense --- Defense of...?"  
  
"Defense Against the Dark Arts? Yeah, I heard he's Head of Slytherin house, too. I hope I'll get sorted there - my grandfather was."  
  
Lily had already known about the Sorting Hat, yet she hadn't really thought about where she'd be placed, now that it came up. "Do you think it matters where we get sorted?"  
  
"Nah, probably just a way to scare people."  
  
Lily smiled. "Well, I hope we'll be in the same House."  
  
"That'll be interesting....'Two Muggle-borns in Slytherin!? So Malfoy, who's scheduled to be hexed this week'?" Severus replied sarcastically. The idea seemed rather unbearable to Lily at first, but they both laughed anyway.  
  
The little redhead sensed an strange warmth in Severus' laughter - something she couldn't yet grasp, but it came so much that she wasn't thinking about the other nice boy.  
  
"Hey, did you read Chapter 12 yet?" he turned a few pages in the book and moved to Lily's side so she could read.  
  
"Oh, 'The Veltroma curse....spits out...' that's amazing!" Lily exclaimed, and the two continued to talk about curses and spells, all the way until the train stopped at Hogsmeade Station. 


	2. Great Expectations

**As always, any familiar names/events are the sole property of JKR. Now read away!  
  
Chapter 2  
  
"ALL FERST YERS, follow me!!"  
  
Lily waited until the four boys had well left the opposite stall, then she jumped off with her backpack. Though it was almost impossible to see anything from the evening's darkness, she quickly heard the growl-like voice of a giant man wearing a thick coat under a shaggy black beard. One look at his shadowy face from his tiny lantern, and the girl tremblingly brushed a bit of her hair.  
  
"That's Hagrid the Gamekeeper," Severus noted as he jumped the train steps and stood next to Lily, carrying a small pack over one shoulder.  
  
Lily remained as frightened as she was, and the pale boy smiled comfortingly. "Well, come on!" he encouraged, then he hiked into the merging crowd.  
  
She forced a step forward to the giant, as he carefully attempted to lead them to a lake without stepping on anybody. Lily didn't know what to think....was he going to force them to swim across the lake? And let the weak ones drown??  
  
It then spawned to her that she wasn't a very good swimmer--  
  
"Four people to eh' boat, come on now!" the roaring voice continued in a lighter tone.  
  
Lily breathed a slight relief, feeling the soft muddy ground beneath her shoes lead the way to the rowboats beside a long, wooden dock. Students were already piling into them like it was a roller-coaster ride, and Lily walked along the edge to find a possible vacancy.  
  
As if the sky had suddenly turned bright blue, she heard someone call out "Lily! Over here!" and scurried over to the empty seat diagonally facing Severus in the small rowboat.  
  
An older girl controlled a lantern hanging in front as the boat's oars magically peddled themselves off the edge of the dock.  
  
The young redhead watched the oars softly stroke the water, and she leaned over to touch a bit of the dark surface with her right hand.  
  
"Careful!"  
  
The older girl directed the lantern to Lily's face, and all eyes in the boat turned to her. "I wouldn't do that; merchildren are rather playful this time of year." She said with a side grin. Though Lily didn't know what exactly she had meant, it was enough to return her back to a straight sitting.  
  
"Alright, you'll be seeing Hogwarts in a few moments," the lead girl said simply, then she dimmed down her lantern and let her four passengers drop their jaws for what they saw next.  
  
Lily had seen pictures of them from her old history books, believing them to exist solely throughout the Middle Ages and fairy tales, but watching one appear at that moment before her very eyes made her spellbound in astonishment. A castle. An enormous Gothic castle by the edge of the lake, with its many towers silhouetted by the clear night, and tiny windows brought out by their gleaming yellow light from within. At that moment, she had forgotten all her school worries.  
  
Hogwarts is a castle!?, she asked herself over and over again, trying to rid her old thought that it depicted an ordinary private school.  
  
She glanced around the other passengers, and they were just as surprised as she was. The short redhead boy in front of her had his right hand clasped to the boat's edge, and a chubby girl next to her looked like her eyes would be crawling out soon. Lily saw part of Severus' pale face and she noticed half of an excited smile, like a smile that spoke for all the first- years from what they were gazing at that night.  
  
"We're going to SCHOOL there?" the redhead boy remarked, and everyone laughed.  
  
The boats slowly pulled up to the long stone dock that bordered a tower in the castle, and the first-years got off one-by-one to follow the giant up the dock steps towards the main entrance. Lily was right behind Severus as they both looked straight up at the edging tower, which seemed to stretch all the way to the stars.  
  
When he stopped at the main doors, the giant waited for everyone to crowd around him, then he said, "Alright now. Prefects, lead the way," and disappeared into the night.  
  
"Where is he going?" Lily asked curiously while the older students took charge and opened the doors. A bright yellow light curtained the crowd and warmed their cheeks.  
  
"To one of the side entrances," a prefect boy replied simply as the group began to walk, "he's meeting the professors there."  
  
"What for?"  
  
"I think it's tradition," Severus caught the conversation and turned his head, "for the Start-of-Term Feast, isn't it?"  
  
"Right. They sit in the Grand Table in the Dining Hall with the other years to await your arrival," the boy explained.  
  
"That's really nice, like we were guests here--" Lily said thoughtfully, and the prefect nodded, and scrambled ahead of the group.  
  
As students walked down the wide entrance halls, Lily took her time gazing at every marble statue and wall pattern. She felt like she was touring the house of King Arthur himself, with a museum of armory and tapestry leading down corridors every which way.  
  
How could anyone ever get bored here? she wondered amusingly to herself.  
  
"Lily, the painting's waving at us!" Severus's hand gestured at her, and she turned to the wall. He was right; an oilpaint of a Renaissance woman (wearing a maroon-colored gown) was eyeing them with a smile as they both passed.  
  
The two astounded first-years couldn't think of anything to do except smile back.  
  
It seemed odd, really - as they waved a 'goodbye' to the painting - that neither had felt scared or even fidgety about these new, enchanted surroundings. Perhaps it was Sir Lucifer's and Granny Gwyn's stories that gave Severus and Lily such an intriguing thought about the magical world, that there was no room to be scared of it. Or perhaps they felt safe from the large group of the students walking along with them. Whatever the reason, an idea had subconsciously crossed their minds after passing the hallway of enchanted portraits: to explore the Hogwarts grounds whenever they could.  
  
As the older students halted to the grand staircase in the heart of the castle, the students spotted a gray tabby cat perched over a stair rail, looking over the entire crowd. As it jumped off the rail, there was a wave of gasps as each first-year discovered that the cat turned into a tall, elder woman! And she grinned kindly to all of them.  
  
"Welcome to Hogwarts," she greeted in her magnificent emerald robes, then motioned the prefects to now enter the stain-glass doors preceding them. Her graying hair was held tightly back in a bun, which complemented her librarian-like glasses. "I am Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Professor to Transfiguration."  
  
Everyone quieted, and Severus and Lily exchanged odd looks, remembering the name of who'd sent the admission letters!  
  
The woman's firm voice automatically caught all their attention, and she went on talking about standard school behavior, the point rewards for conduct, and finally the Sorting Ceremony.  
  
"The four Houses are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. At the end of the term, the House with the most points will win the House Cup."  
  
Lily had already said she'd work hard to stay in this magical place, but apart from Severus, the students seemed to be trembling as Mcgonagall mentioned the House names. Why did they look so worried?  
  
"Now follow me." The emerald robes undulated to a turn and moved towards the grand doors, and the first-years lagged behind.  
  
"Brite says that Ravenclaw has the best Quidditch team this year--"  
  
"Imagine being a Slytherin and having to deal with the Wisps--"  
  
"I'll just DIE if I don't make it to Gryffindor!! What'll my parents think?"  
  
Strange chatter was swarming around Lily's ears like an entirely different language, and she kept close to the just-as-surprised Severus while they passed through the doors and into the Great Hall.  
  
Perhaps it was some kind of magic, but the place seemed a lot bigger than she could have thought possible from outside. The Great Hall somehow had enough room to fit four long tables filled with older students, as well as a head table for faculty at the very end. Lily looked up into the ceiling, amazed at the beautiful pattern of white candles, which floated inches above her head.  
  
The group of first-years followed McGonagall to the front of the faculty table, and the ancient-looking hat was revealed at the center platform. As if it were waiting for everyone to look right at it, the Sorting Hat folded itself a pair eyes with a hole at the brim for a mouth, and began to sing....  
  
"Another year has finally sprung  
  
Yet my old ways stay old,  
  
For I'm the famous Sorting Hat  
  
Of which you have been told.  
  
My task here may seem simple  
  
Through your wondrous eyes and ears  
  
But let me say that what I shout  
  
Could mark your life for years!  
  
With 'Gryffindor' comes bravery and  
  
The willingness to find  
  
A virtue for the common good  
  
and justice to the kind.  
  
'Hufflepuff' brings friendship  
  
to those who seek it most,  
  
where hearts can mend and  
  
comfort the saddest little ghost.  
  
'Ravenclaw' knows cleverness  
  
by both the brain and mind,  
  
pure strategy makes their achievements  
  
hard to leave behind.  
  
Or perhaps a 'Slytherin'  
  
Will make your day much more,  
  
Those who wish to shine in glory  
  
Know which way to soar.  
  
Four simple words, four destinies  
  
All sewn into my song,  
  
While I do enjoy a challenge  
  
I have yet to be proved wrong.  
  
So come on up, and let me see  
  
Where all your values lie,  
  
And don't be scared, for Hogwarts School  
  
Makes everything worth a try!!"  
  
A great applause came as the Sorting Hat finished his song, but Lily and Severus just stood frozen. It wasn't only because the hat was magical and could sing - but what it sang made them completely dumbfounded. The House placement couldn't be THAT important, could it?  
  
"I....I don't know what my destiny is!" she panicked: her head was pulling her in all directions: I think I'm smart, but enough for Ravenclaw? Or maybe I'm more nice like a Hufflepuff....  
  
"Lily, it's okay!" Severus tried to calm her, seeing that tears were misting her bright green eyes. "The Sorting Hat just sorts - it can't tell us who we are!"  
  
Just then the applause faded, and Professor McGonnagal rolled out a piece of parchment, and called out the first name.  
  
"Avery, Robert."  
  
The young redhead boy from the row-boat slowly walked up to the platform, sat on the stool, and the Sorting Hat was gently placed over his head. Lily and Severus watched without blinking.  
  
"RAVENCLAW!" and a whole table of students stood up to clap for him as he found a an empty seat.  
  
"See?" Severus whispered. "I told you, it just wants to scare us."  
  
"Black, Sirius."  
  
A boy with curly black hair casually walked up to the stool. Lily narrowed her eyes, recognizing him from the train; he was one of the four boys in the opposite stall--.  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!" A different table erupted with cheer as the boy jumped down and ran to his table.  
  
"Do you think you'll be in Slytherin?" Lily then asked, clutching her small backpack by the straps.  
  
"I know my grandfather was sorted there," Severus noted, "but it really doesn't matter to me."  
  
A few more names came afterwards, and as each student was separated into an individual House, the little girl grew more and more anxious to know where she herself would be placed.  
  
"Evans, Lily."  
  
Her eyelids rose at the sound of her name, and slowly she took a deep breath - hoping not to stumble on anything - and walked up to the platform. As she turned to sit straight on the three-legged stool, she tried hard not tense up from the hundreds of eyes that seemed to be looking at her that very moment. Lily's eyes wandered around and caught the face of that mean blonde-haired boy from the station, Malfoy, smiling grimly at her. She looked immediately away as the Sorting Hat softly touched her head.  
  
"Hmmm....." Came a whispery voice at the edge of her ear, "The first Evans at Hogwarts I presume, this is very exciting...."  
  
The little girl clutched the edge of the stool and closed her eyes as the voice spoke.  
  
"....I see you have plenty of love, my dear, good-hearted nonetheless...."  
  
This doesn't seem so bad, Lily thought, smiling as she listened intently.  
  
"....but what's this?"  
  
Her eyes sprung open, scared.  
  
"Courage?"  
  
What?? Lily thought curiously.  
  
"Oh, what grand way to have truth be told! I believe you will make fine work as a.....GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Lily's face lighted up as she saw an entire table stand and cheer for her. The Hat was then lifted off her head and she quickly ran off to the Gryffindor Table. Once she sat, she wasted no time in looking back to spot Severus in the crowd, and he gave her a proud smile.  
  
She smiled as an afterthought - strange how the Sorting Hat found her as brave, after her worrisome nature. Perhaps Severus was right; maybe this was all a joke?  
  
As the names continued, the only thing she hoped for now was that her friend would be in Gryffindor too.  
  
Things seemed to be going quite smoothly through Lily's view, until the name "Lupin, Remus" was called. Students were beginning to cause a stir of mumbles all around the Great Hall.  
  
Lily watched a boy with ear-length hair walk up to the stool. As he turned around to show his face, she recognized him - the nice boy from the train station!! But Lily couldn't help but wonder why people were mumbling; nothing seemed to be wrong about him.  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Lily clapped excitedly, then realized she was one of the very few doing so. Remus walked with a reluctant smile and found a seat next to the boy named Sirius Black.  
  
"Congratulations," Lily said, hoping he'd remember her.  
  
"Thanks!" Remus replied ever so kindly, and Lily had the urge of talking the other Gryffindors off from being so inconsiderate.  
  
After a spiffy little boy named "Pettigrew, Peter" was unhappily called for Hufflepuff, the next "GRYFFINDOR!" came to "Potter, James."  
  
He was a tall, rather skinny boy with round glasses and messy black hair. Lily assumed he was best friends with Sirius and Remus, since he was too busy giving them high-fives that he didn't even look at the little redhead sitting right next to him.  
  
Finally, after what seemed ages of wait, "Snape, Severus" was called up from the small remaining crowd of first-years, and he calmly walked up for his sort. He smiled at Lily as the Sorting Hat was placed on his head, and Lily couldn't remember praying so hard in her life......  
  
"...SLYTHERIN!"  
  
As if a thousand pebbles had flown straight at her face, she saw Severus walk indifferently to the table furthest from hers. When she noticed Malfoy clapping along with the others, Lily fought hard not to think terrible things.  
  
Severus sat down and shook hands with the other Slytherins close-by, and before the applause faded again, he glanced across the Great Hall to look at Lily.  
  
She grinned, as if about to weep, but then gave a slight shrug that said, "it doesn't matter, right?"  
  
And Severus answered that with a single nod to the head.  
  
Once the remaining first-years had found their own House, the elder wizard from the High Table - which Lily knew had to be Dumbledore - raised his hands, and the Start-of-Term feast began.  
  
Lily didn't pay much attention to the delicious food, or to the dancing ghosts that appeared shortly afterwards. What really kept her mind was that Severus didn't seem to care about House placement as much as others did.  
  
Finding another Muggle-born at Hogwarts made this new life even more exciting for Lily Evans, and before falling asleep that first night in the castle, the little girl wished with all her heart that they would be friends. 


	3. Breakfast with Slippers

Chapter 3  
  
Dear Mum, Wow, it's only been a week since term started, and already so much has happened here, I don't think this parchment is long enough to tell it all! I'll try. =) You were right, Mum, the Magical World is incredible - I almost fainted when I saw that Hogwarts was a castle. Can you believe it, Mum? I'm living in a castle! Everyone here is really nice, and I've already gotten to know some of the teachers: Professor Binns (he's a ghost!) teaches Muggle History, Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration, Professor Jacobi teaches Potions..they're all very interesting! McGonnagall's the Head of Gryffindor House too - that's the House I'm in - and I share a dormitory with two other girls: Joyce and Margaret. I really hope we'll be friends. Oh, and not to worry, Mum, I'm not the only Muggle-Born this year! There's another one: his name is Severus--  
  
"Lily? We're going down to breakfast. Coming?" Margaret called from the Gryffindor Common Room, and Lily looked up from her four-poster to catch her roommate's bellowing voice (Margaret took singing lessons). Lily set her parchment down, shouted back an "Okay!" and ran all around the room in her fluffy slippers to find pieces of her school uniform.  
  
"Joyce?" Lily called.  
  
"Yeah?" came another voice.  
  
"I can't find my Gryffindor robes!"  
  
"Oh no! Lily, I tried them on - thought they were mine - go look on my bed!" And so the little redhead dug into Joyce's monstrous pile of clothes, finally pulling out her wrinkled robes and throwing it over her back, running across the dormitory hall and down to the Gryffindor Common Room.  
  
Joyce snickered.  
  
"What?" Lily asked, and Joyce pointed to her feet. She was still wearing her lime-green slippers, and the little girl's face was starting to blush.  
  
"Come on," Margaret urged, "Breakfast is almost over, Lily, no one'll notice."  
  
"Oh...I don't know..maybe I'll just..." "Come ON!" Joyce and Margaret pulled Lily by an arm out of the Common Room before she could think twice, and the girls ran (and shuffled) towards the Great Hall to catch the last ten minutes of breakfast.  
  
Filch, the Caretaker, must've scrubbed wax onto the marble floor during the night, because Lily had nearly slipped before making it to the Great Hall. Fortunately, the Hall was practically empty when the girls arrived, and they quickly found seats near the food table.  
  
To save more embarrassment, Lily walked with her socks as she made line for the food, but the boy in front of her stepped on her foot by accident.  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"Oh sorry! I'm so sorry!" squeaked Peter Pettigrew, and without even seeing who he stepped on, he scampered meekly over to his friends.  
  
"Good God, Peter, she'll live." Lily heard another boy say rather sarcastically off in the distance, while she rubbed her foot with her other one. Before anyone could possibly notice her barefootedness, she grabbed a few muffins with juice and tried to make it to her table, with a slight limp.  
  
"Hey, Black! Look what I found!"  
  
And before she even took a seat, Lily's face flushed from color, seeing none other than James Potter waving one of her lime-green slippers as high as his arm could reach. He must have spotted them under the Gryffindor Table! Lily thought in a panic. The few people in the Great Hall were now beginning to turn their heads over at the stupid boy.  
  
Sirius Black held his arms up further down the table, as if offering a catch, and James slung his hand back to toss.  
  
"Give them here, James." Margaret reluctantly stood up next to Lily.  
  
"Why?" James' eyes glinted through his round glasses. "Are they yours?"  
  
The students around them looked straight at her then, with deep interest.  
  
"No, they're.....someone else's," Margaret was feeling a blush herself.  
  
"Well, Finders-Keepers!" James sang at her face.  
  
Chuckles started along the rows of table, and all Lily wanted to do was limp out of the Great Hall.  
  
"'Know what, Black?" James summoned again. "I think a yellow polka-dot color looks much better on me, don't you think?"  
  
Black laughed, "Go ahead!"  
  
James took out his wand from his robes, pointed it to the slipper on his hand, opened his mouth---  
  
"Stop!" Lily's voice squeaked suddenly, as she recalled the slippers being a Christmas present, but the laughing didn't stop then. She just looked up at the slipper held, to avoid the James' deadly grin coming at her.  
  
"Yours?" he asked smiling, having way too much fun to dull a moment.  
  
The little girl's foot began to hurt even more.  
  
"Yes," she mouthed.  
  
"Where did you find shoes like these?" James asked. They hadn't come from Diagon Alley, he certainly knew that already.  
  
"Th-they're not shoes," Lily admitted, and then a bit downhearted, "They're slippers--"  
  
"For goodness SAKE, James, give them back to her!" Joyce then attempted from the other side of the table.  
  
"But I've never seen slippers that fluffy before," the boy said with an edge of tease.  
  
"My---my parents gave them to me," Lily spoke in monotone, praying no one could hear.  
  
"Really? Do they shop in Muggle stores often?" James asked suspiciously. His voice seemed to get louder, especially with the word 'muggle'.  
  
She wanted to lie. She wanted to pretend this little scenario was not happening. She wanted to find an excuse and make herself sound like she didn't know anything about a Muggle World until now, make it sound reasonable, and true.  
  
But Lily's heart stopped there, and the emerald eyes nervously moved up to meet the boy's dark brown.  
  
Her mum, her dad, even her sister...the most important people in her life...how could ever she think badly of them..as an embarrassment...when they hadn't done anything wrong?  
  
"Give them back, Potter!" Margaret demanded, and attempted to snatch the one off his hand, but failed.  
  
James only stared down at the little redhead, eagerly watching her face turn bright pink. Lily could hear Black laughing at the corner of her eye, which to her sounded more like a witch's cackle, and she could only imagine what was coming....James, that stupid, boy, he was going to call her something...something terrible...maybe that same word Malfoy had used---  
  
"You'll have to CATCH me first!" James laughed, and Lily's mind whooshed back to reality, gasping as the boy took off in the opposite direction with both her slippers swinging on his hands.  
  
And Margaret went after him in circles around the Great Hall, extremely fed up.  
  
The little redhead just stood, flabbergasted.  
  
She was almost sure James was going to spill the beans about her family - she could tell that he had figured out she was Muggle-born, by that black- maling look on his face. But why was he stalling? This didn't make any sense.  
  
Lily thought Malfoy's evil looks in the hallways would have driven her to madness after that first week, but Sirius Black and James Potter seemed to be challenging that spot right on. All her life, she had never met people so....so....annoying! And extremely overbearing, to say the least.  
  
Yesterday they had managed to put a charm on Margaret's brush so her hair would get frizzy when brushing, and the day before that they placed toad skins under Joyce's pillow!  
  
Why in the world did the Sorting Hat put them into Gryffindor??? was what Lily wondered time and again, and this - when her Muggle-Born identity was just seconds away from forcefully being told - this was definitely taking it to a personal level. Margaret was panting as she went around the entire Hall for the seventh time, which told Lily this had gone far enough....  
  
She started to pick up where Margeret left off, chasing James around the Gryffindor table as he passed it again, her limp quickly disappearing.  
  
"Hmm...let's see....yellow polka-dot? Or perhaps red and gold stripes...." was all James could say as he passed Sirius again, who was almost falling off his seat from laughing so hard. Pettigrew was hiding behind Blake Dawgins, the only Prefect in the room, but he also seemed too amused to stop an entertainment before class.  
  
"Over here, James!"  
  
"Lily, get him!"  
  
"Potter, you big prude---"  
  
The little redhead heard people call on them as they went around the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables like a Figure-8, and that's when James decided to run out the Great Hall doors to see if Lily followed.  
  
She did, exhausted.  
  
"J---J---" Lily jogged with her socks, while the boy was very much ahead with his shoes.  
  
"James-Potter----I'll-KILL you----"  
  
"Ms. EVANS!"  
  
Lily squeaked, almost slipping to the ground as she heard her name.  
  
A strong, clear voice that could only be of Professor McGonagall, broke her train of thought. The woman appeared from the room Lily had just passed in the hallway, and the girl caught her breath before she said anything.  
  
"Oh! Professor, I--I didn't mean---"  
  
"There's no need to run in the corridors, Ms. Evans," the woman said to her firmly. "And mind your mouth."  
  
Lily blushed, feeling tons and tons of guilt on her shoulders.  
  
"But I didn't mean it, Professor, honestly," she said, gripping her hands to ease the anger she felt with Potter.  
  
"What aren't you wearing any shoes?" McGonagall asked rather skeptically.  
  
At that question, the girl looked down at her feet, totally unprepared.  
  
"Um...I..you see..." her eyes glanced ahead at the corridor to try and spot James somewhere.  
  
" Well, wherever they must be, put them on at once! Goodness, you'll fall and hurt yourself."  
  
"Yes, Professor," Lily nodded.  
  
"Alright, then. I'll see you this afternoon," and with a sharp turn of her heel, Professor McGonagall walked down the corridor Lily had come from.  
  
Lily exhaled, as if she'd been holding her breath for a minute. The hallway was suddenly very quiet, and she looked ahead helplessly.  
  
She did notice James' small figure, waving her slippers on one hand, and then taking off further down in the hallway.  
  
Extremely put out, Lily walked towards the Gryffindor Commons to get ready for class. All she could think about was how to snatch those slippers from Potter's grip the next time she saw him. If it takes a 'manosimente' spell to get them back, she thought, I'll most definitely do it. Those slippers were worth more than all of Black and Potters' jokes put together, she thought, opening the door that led into the girl's dormitories... and if they did ANYTHING to them...one tiny polka dot.... she'd go straight to Dumbledore and ask him to transfer them to another school immediately.....  
  
"Did you get them?"  
  
"What?" Lily asked as she walked into the dormitory.  
  
"Your slippers." Margaret spoke again. "Did you get them?"  
  
"Oh. No, I didn't," Lily said, and Margaret growled in frustration.  
  
"God, that stupid Potter....here, I brought you a muffin." Joyce held out her hand.  
  
"Thanks," Lily received the muffin, and stuffed it into her robe pocket for later, as her appetite was gone.  
  
"Man, " Joyce threw her arms wildly, "Can you BELIEVE he almost told everyone that you're...well....you know?"  
  
"Honestly Lily, if I were you, I'd kill him." Margaret started making her bed neatly.  
  
"And he almost got me into trouble!" Lily went over to her fourposter to make her own bed. "McGonagall....oh I really hope she doesn't think badly of me..."  
  
"Quit worrying. She won't!" Joyce said as she rummaged through her pile of clothes.  
  
"Really, Lily, you're such the sweetheart, and trust me, if that Potter ever tells anybody about....you know...I'll kill him." Margaret gave her firm face of determination, and Lily laughed, which made her feel much better.  
  
"Thanks, but, I don't...know...is it really bad to say that you're Muggle- Born?"  
  
"Some people think it's strange," Margaret said moderately, "and the Wisps - there's no telling what they might do."  
  
"Oh but they've got it on them!" Joyce's face propped out of the pile. "Didn't you hear?"  
  
"What?" Margaret asked.  
  
"SLYTHERIN's got a Muggle-Born too!"  
  
"WHAT?? You're joking!" Margaret sat flatly on her cushion with disbelief, and Lily pretended not to hear.  
  
"No! His name's Snape. Felix heard him talking about going to some concert a few years ago - what was it again --- the Biddles...Battles...."  
  
"The BEATLES!?" Lily couldn't resist, and Joyce looked at her oddly. "You know them?"  
  
"Yes!" but then Lily softened "I mean....well, not personally."  
  
"What do they play?" Margaret asked full of interest.  
  
"Um, mostly Rock and Roll."  
  
"Rocks are instruments in the Muggle World??" Joyce's eyes lit up in amusement.  
  
"No no! Just....electric guitars....that sort of thing."  
  
"Oh that's right - Muggles use ee-lectricity!"  
  
"Wow, Lily, you must really miss home now that you're here," Margaret remarked as she packed her Charms books into her bag.  
  
"I guess.....but if there's a Muggle-Born in Slytherin, does that mean the Wisps won't.....tease me?"  
  
"Beats me, who can possibly know how Malfoy thinks? Just ignore him, Lily, that's all I can say."  
  
"I try, but I always get goosebumps when he's looking at me. I keep thinking he might.well.put me on fire, or something."  
  
"Nonsense!" Joyce remarked as she finally found her hair pin, "but most people are scared of him anyway, if that makes you feel better."  
  
"Hmm....do you know if there are other Muggle-Borns this year?" Lily then asked, after some thinking.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I'll keep my ears open, if you want."  
  
"Thanks, Joyce."  
  
"That's the first bell!" Margaret noted to them. "We better go."  
  
While the girls scrambled out their dormitory, down the Common Room stairs, and out the portrait hole, they had failed to see a boy, with a grin widespread onto his face, unwrap an arm from his Invisibility Cloak and place a pair of fluffy lime-green slippers at the foot of the girls' door. 


	4. Pure Annoyance

NOTE: all familiar names are JKR's, of course – this chapter's nice and long, so enjoy!  
  
Chapter 4  
  
"Vvv--vertosen......... S-spa-'spike'os........."  
  
Class was not going well for Lily that afternoon, as professor McGonagall deliberately asked her and Joyce to demonstrate turning a snail's smooth shell into rough spikes in front of all the first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Joyce was pointing her wand straight at the slimy little creature that was swerving on her desk, while Lily was supposed to say the words. Yet nothing seemed to be happening.  
  
Her mind was somewhere else.  
  
It was wondering where her fluffy lime green slippers had gone to, and what James Potter had finally done to them.........and why he kept giving her this evil smirk whenever she glanced over to him.........  
  
"Miss Evans, dear, are you alright?" McGonagall finally asked, noticing how the girl's words trembled like stage fright.  
  
"Um," Lily's mind snapped back towards her professor, almost like she flinched. "I--I'm fine, professor.........I just can't ........." and her hesitant words just left her looking at the floor.  
  
Joyce had held the wand for so long that the snail had swerved to the edge of their desk. She had to catch it quickly before it fell onto the hard stone floor, and only the students closest to them had laughed a little, except Margaret.  
  
Though she wasn't the smartest student by far, both her roommates and McGonagall knew it wasn't in Lily's nature to fail so miserably. The girl looked around the room, at those who smiled teasingly, then back at her professor - who then seemed to tower over her small form.  
  
Those brilliant green eyes that usually shone with determination had hid themselves from the world, as Lily narrowed them towards the floor in shame.  
  
Why was it so difficult to forget a simple joke from Potter and Black? She thought to herself. Lupin, strangely, did not attend class that day, and Lily had hoped that seeing his face would make her feel better. Though he always sided with his friends, Remus Lupin was the only one in Potter's clan who wouldn't take part in teasing other people. Now and then, Lily wondered why that nice boy was even friends with them at all.  
  
As Professor McGonagall attempted to quiet down her class from the random snickering, she looked straight at James and Sirius back in the last row – as if she had read Lily's mind.  
  
"That is enough from you two," the professor spoke roughly at them. "You will remain in your seats after class."  
  
Margaret sighed with relief after hearing the woman's stern voice – she could tell that McGonagall had suspected them of mischief ever since they'd entered the classroom, smiling.  
  
"And that will be all, girls. Thank you."  
  
Joyce sat down instantly, while Lily let her form sink back onto the bench. Her eyes remained unfocused, but a slight glow had returned to them again.  
  
"Now, continuing the lesson........." McGonagall turned around towards her plat- formed desk, letting her emerald robes undulate professionally as she walked. "As you can see, Miss Evans revealed a very important point when it comes to delivering a spell."  
  
The students were dipping quills and placing them over clean parchment, ready to take this important piece of information. Lily dropped hers after hearing her name, and quickly rummaged through her backpack for another.  
  
"Regardless of the incantation, you must believe what you're saying in order to create the action. It takes concentration and precision; just relying on voice clarity does not make the spell work........."  
  
This went on until the end of class, and by that time, McGonagall had described numerous consequences a distraction can have during a transfiguration spell. Being an Animagus, she even said that every transformation brings a new opportunity to injure herself badly.  
  
"One misplaced bone, for example, could pierce my lung if I don't concentrate enough."  
  
A small gulping sound came from a Ravenclaw girl in the second row, but nobody laughed. It seemed like everyone had believed that spells – as long as they were remembered correctly – could deliver a perfect result. But McGonagall clearly told them otherwise.  
  
The bell rang then, and the students gathered their books and scrambled for the door.  
  
"Please read Chapter 3: Camouflaging Techniques, for Wednesday," McGonagall bellowed after them, and made some students groan past the doorway, "and remember that your responses are due Friday – no exceptions!"  
  
Joyce and Margaret were ready to leave by the time Lily searched under her seat for the dropped quill, very slowly. She wanted to hear what the Head of Gryffindor House would say to the two biggest troublemakers of the school.  
  
Lily's bangs were slightly covering her sight as she gathered her things, but she could see the professor confronting the two boys as they remained in their seats. For some reason, Black and Potter did not look alarmed at all.  
  
"Alright, boys. Whose hairbrush did you hex on today?" the woman asked them firmly, yet with an exhausted tone. Lily leaned her ear as she quietly picked up her quill.  
  
"Us? We've done nothing wrong, professor." Sirius said right when James' mouth was going to open and say something else along that line. Black's long curly hair seemed to shadow his face in the way that a secret investigator would hide his badge, and he refused to reveal it to anyone.  
  
Margaret rolled her eyes at the door, completely intimidated, and told McGonagall right then and there what had happened. Lily's eyes widened at each mention of her name, hearing her friend speak in the clearest voice imaginable.  
  
Lily knew that Margaret was simply trying to help, but as the MuggleBorn heard those words echo alongside the walls, she could feel her stomach getting heavier by the second. It was like the mere retelling of the story (and the spotlight beaming at her again) was making Lily feel even more embarrassed.  
  
"Potter didn't even give them back!" the proper brunette ended as a side- note, pointing to the boy with the round glasses straight at his face. Only Sirius could notice James trying hard not to crack up hysterically.  
  
"So that is why Miss Evans was running without any shoes this morning........." McGonagall understood, and she turned to the little girl, who was fighting off a blush.  
  
James was about to take his defense, but McGonagall's voice beat him that second time: "I'm afraid this is not the smartest way to be starting the year, Mr. Potter," then the woman began preaching to him about respecting other students' personal property.  
  
The professor's cat-like hearing ability caught his friend Black muttering "God, we were just playing........." under his cloak, and she turned to his face immediately.  
  
"I do not tolerate disrespect in my classroom," she stated with a firm grip.  
  
"Professor," James began, casually, "I just wanted to examine them a bit – the slippers looked very odd to me – but I had every intention on giving them back."  
  
His voice sounded as pure as sour milk, and Joyce gave a small sound of disgust. She was appalled by how James could imagine himself weaseling around punishments.  
  
McGonagall shook her head.  
  
"You both just lost ten points for Gryffindor," the woman held her stance, as she always did, "and you can add another day of detention to your original week's, Mr. Potter." At that, James did nothing but bite his lip.  
  
Joyce smiled at hearing the punishment, knowing just how hard James Potter would be taking it throughout the next week – exactly when Quidditch trials were starting.  
  
"You are all dismissed," professor McGonagall said, and Lily quickly carried her backpack to the door, avoiding any dirty looks from Potter and Black.  
  
It was probably the only thing James Potter took seriously in his life, and he anticipated to practice endlessly that week in order to show his skills to the Gryffindor team. From what his parents had told him, the last time a First Year had made any Hogwarts Quidditch team was when Dumbledore's brother had been a student. Yet James was certain this year would be the record-breaking one.  
  
Joyce maintained that grin, and held the snail gently with an open palm as the three girls strolled out of McGonagall's classroom into the outside corridors. She looked at Lily's shy, unsure face that seemed to be floating along with the breeze.  
  
"Lily, could you bring the snail back to the Conservatory for me?" she asked. "I wanted to see my sister's practice out in the field right after Charms ended."  
  
"Of course, Joyce." Lily smiled, but with a hint of uncertainty in her eyes, like she was remembering the last scenario. Joyce handed her the snail carefully onto the girl's palm.  
  
"Don't let stupid Potter get to you like that," Joyce said with encouragement, as they walked out into the courtyard. She spotted the messy-haired boy strolling along the corridors with Black and Pettigrew (who was drenched in Potions parchment) as if he were already a Prefect. Joyce snarled. "He's just trying to annoy you, because......... well, you know."  
  
"Yeah," the little dreamer's green eyes were gazing down at the snail, and she was mouthing something, like a quote or a phrase she that was swimming in her head.  
  
"Lily, it's 'vertiosen Spikasoma'," Margaret recited promptly, but in a tone that helped her get a bad memory out of her mind. The tall brunette had her wand pointed out to the snail, and as she said the words, the shell had spiked itself immediately.  
  
"I was so close!" Lily said as if worm-out, knowing she probably wouldn't have let it go until the end of the week. After a brief laugh, the girls sat themselves down on the grass, and Margaret finally gave in to Joyce's plea to french braid her scalp.  
  
"It's going to be a challenge, trust me........." she said, and Joyce chuckled her high-pitched way as she started to brush the girl's silky black hair with her hand.  
  
"You're lucky, you know. Without me, you'd probably be wearing pony-tails all the way through seventh year!" Margaret squealed in astonishment, but laughed all the same. Lily grinned her dimples out from that humorous truth Joyce had spilled.  
  
"Want to be next, Lily?" the golden blonde then turned her head around, eyeing the girl's long, radiant red hair that was merely worn by a pink headband cloth.  
  
"Um........ alright........." Lily gave in, and untied the cloth off her head for preparation, "but please, nothing too complicated – I shed so much the last time!"  
  
Lily let the snail (with its new spiky shell) move around in the grass while they all continued to talk about class and annoying little boys. On the other side of the courtyard, her curious eyes spotted a familiar fair- skinned boy, who was reading nose-deep in the gray Defense Against the Dark Arts book. She grinned, almost shaking her head in disbelief.  
  
Severus Snape (far from being considered annoying) did not seem to be joking when he told her it was his favorite subject, beyond the level of Potions and Alchemy. He had already read the book cover-to-cover by the end of that first week, and was now refreshing his mind over detailed, numerical information.  
  
The boy moved his head towards his backpack to take out a quill, when the corner of his eye caught Lily seeing him. He waved a brief greeting to her.  
  
She politely waved back, reminding herself to ask about that Beatles concert he had attended the next time she saw him.  
  
"Are you mad!?" Joyce whispered, and accidentally pulled at Margaret's hair ("Ouch!") while she looked at Lily.  
  
"What?" the girl asked curiously, yet mediocre.  
  
"That's Snape, Lily........." her voice emphasized his name as if it were a rare bird species or something. "the other you-know-what I was telling you about. Don't look at him!"  
  
Lily hated pretending like she didn't know anything about Snape, because she didn't want to admit that she'd already met the MuggleBorn – even before she met Joyce and Margaret. She felt it would just complicate things between her and her nice roommates, like she was ditching them and trying to interact with her own kind.  
  
Perhaps, she thought, it was best to tell them at the end of the year, when they would all be much closer friends.  
  
"He seems nice to me," Lily simply commented in a wondering tone.  
  
"People may start to think you're comfortable around you-know-whats, Lily." Margaret pointed out, "and next they'll be saying you're a you-know-what yourself."  
  
Lily sighed, knowing how her brunette friend could get carried away with such things. She would never stop talking to Snape (as it was something she promised herself), but for the sake of being teased by the Wisps, she thought it was best to keep her identity as secret as possible.  
  
"Ugh, that boy creeps me out, I'm telling you." Joyce then commented about Snape. "Really, a tanning charm wouldn't hurt for him, and if he isn't reading, he's somewhere writing his own spells, I've heard.........always mouthing them to himself as if nobody's watching."  
  
"Maybe he just wants the attention." Margaret implied as an afterthought, "he is a you-know-what, after all – no offense to you, Lily."  
  
"That's alright," the little girl smiled at nothingness, still not believing this boy enjoyed the same music as she did. No matter what she thought about this other MuggleBorn, it all seemed to be okay, regardless of how strange her friends looked at him.  
  
"Well I thought I was going to fall dead in History this morning." Margaret then brought up, as she went through some of her notes. "Poor Binns......... Who really needs to know about 'early peace treaties with giants' on the first year of school?"  
  
Both Joyce and Lily nodded in agreement, just as a light breeze was sweeping through the courtyard and blew some Charms parchment a few feet away from them.  
  
"Oh I'll get them," the redhead rose up to let her friends continue with the braiding party, and went out to gather the escaping parchment. She noticed a couple of nearby Hufflepuffs staring at her oddly, as she picked the papers up one by one with her hands. It seemed like that normal gesture seemed out of place, as if she were supposed to grab them with her feet instead.  
  
A little help would have been nice, Lily thought to herself, as she finished piling up the loose papers and went back to her friends. She was staring ahead, past Margaret's flinches from Joyce's hair-pulling, when she gasped.  
  
The Wisps – led by that dreadful fourth-year, Lucius Malfoy - had been standing behind the gate's shadows to the courtyard, like a group of vultures waiting for a wounded prey. It was an understatement to say that Lily felt quite uncomfortable around them, since their eyes always seemed to be glaring at her.  
  
"I-- think I'll take this little lad back into the Conservatory – he seems lonely," Lily excused as she quickly set the escaped parchment back under Margaret's own book, and then carefully picked up the snail and her backpack. "I'll meet you both in class, okay? You can braid my hair tonight, Joyce."  
  
"Okay," Joyce raised an eyebrow at her, wondering what was up, but intended not to say anything further.  
  
Lily walked out of the courtyard (side-glancing at Snape for a second) and into the shaded corridors, away from the deadly eyes that came from the Wisps. She turned to the right as she past the gate that was blanketed with vines, and found a line of octagon-shaped stepping stones. The stones were filed out of the courtyard and led to the open gardens.  
  
One-by-one, she stepped on each individual stone, until she reached the forty-second stone and placed both feet perfectly over it. As she carefully held the snail in her hand, she said the password.  
  
"Cornish Pixies," she recited, looking onto the little snail's spiky shell.  
  
Suddenly, the stone began to descend vertically into the underground, and Lily held her breath immediately. Once the stone had floated down to about ten feet, the girl found herself in an underground entranceway of solid rock and marble. Only a few torches gave a warm yellowish glow to the room, and there was nothing else in front of her except a wooden door, that she merely opened with her hand.  
  
The Creature Conservatory was the first place Lily came to adore at Hogwarts, as she naturally loved being around animals from the Muggle world. It was like an enormous wildlife petting zoo, but without cages or walls so as to let the creatures interact with each other. This was where Hagrid, the Gamekeeper, took care of the animals used between each class during the school year, and they ranged from small butterflies to swift spider moneys and even a baby elephant! It was a wonder how all theses creatures got along.  
  
The entire Conservatory was built below the Hogwarts courtyard, as McGonagall had told them, and like the ceiling of the Great Hall, the courtyard's ground seemed to be enchanted. Every day, the sunlight would filter through the grass and cement to shine on the giant tree roots and vines that descended into the abyss – creating an underground paradise.  
  
Lily could even see Joyce and Margaret sitting on the grass above her, though a bit unclear from the layer of grass roots and soil between them. The girls were still braiding each other's hair, and though she couldn't hear what they were saying, Lily examined Margaret's facial expressions, and concluded it was probably about Potter and Black, again.  
  
There was even a small fountain built in the center of the place, with tiny multicolored fish jumping in and out of the water like a synchronized swim team. Lily sat herself on the edge of the fountain to feel the water spray against her dry face, and looked at the little fish playing inside the pool.  
  
Only a handful of students were noticing the peaceful environment within the Conservatory, as Lily saw a pair of Hufflepuff girls reading their Astronomy books next to a napping she-wolf that cuddled around them (occasionally, one of the girls would scratch the wolf's ear it keep her from snoring so loudly). An older boy from Gryffindor was sketching a beautiful picture of a macaw that was perched on a high tree root. As Lily noted, there weren't any other first years that seemed to appreciate the Conservatory as often as she did - though she swore she had seen Peter Pettigrew chasing some mice by himself one Friday morning.  
  
She heard Hagrid talking to the elderly professor Genspy (whom she knew was the Care of Magical Creatures teacher) as they both sat on a giant tree root in one corner of the place.  
  
Lily returned to watching the fish swim in the fountain pool, trying to catch what Hagrid and Genspy were talking about. The little redhead always enjoyed listening in their conversations: last Thursday, they were predicting the hopefuls for the October Dragon Derby up at Inverness, Scotland.  
  
"Ye hafter give credit to Greenland an' their pedigrees – but speed comes straight from the Easterners – I hear the Chinese are breedin' them Fireballs like mad there........."  
  
Today, it was something slightly boring about Magical Creature Welfare Acts, but nevertheless, these subjects seemed to expand Lily's presumed size of this Magical World. Her father was a big horseracing fan, she remembered then; perhaps telling him about dragon races would help him lose the awkwardness of having a daughter as a witch.  
  
As the small ripples in the fountain water slowly calmed, Lily noticed a certain familiar face reflecting on the surface, right next to her own. The girl's eyelids suddenly rose.  
  
"Lupin?" 


	5. Guppies and Lupin

"Yeah, you looked familiar," the boy chuckled as the little girl's face moved from the reflection to the real thing. "Lily...Evers?"

"Ev---Yes!" she replied nervously, admiring Lupin's sky blue eyes that looked kindly at her. She could've been named 'Cornucopia' and Lily wouldn't have had a care in the world.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, almost too quickly.

Lupin blinked at that statement, scratching one of his elf-like ears. Apparently, he had not been ready for that sort of question. "I just needed some quiet time, I guess."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Lily suddenly felt incredibly dim. "Did you want to be alone?"

Lily truly hoped it wasn't humanly possible to turn bright pink in less than a second. Though, as she said those words, she remembered it was Lupin who had walked up to her, and not the other way around.

"No, no. It's fine," he smiled wholeheartedly, as if his original plans had changed since he had seen her there. "I mean I don't mind company or anything."

The little girl beamed, and tried to hide her excitement with a smile – perhaps too broad a smile – as she began stroking a small strand of her hair. She was imagining how lucky she must've been to be in the Conservatory that exact day, and to think Joyce was planning to come there instead!

Remus Lupin never did seem to show off his existence the way his friends, Potter and Black, did. Throughout that whole week, Lily could see him being more interested in studying for next Thursday's potion review, along with tutoring frantic-little-Pettigrew whenever the two ran into each other in the courtyards. She wondered how someone who was so nice and endearing could hardly grab attention to people...and even be the subject of so many ridiculous rumors!

To say that Severus' vampire blood was bad enough, it seemed nothing compared to the things Lily would hear about this nice boy throughout the school. Bobby Avery, from Ravenclaw, recently said that Lupin's father was a praised wolf hunter on the Scottish Highlands, and would let his children scamper into the woods.

'_That was the secret to his success!' she recalled Avery's voice in the library. 'You see, wolves can't resist the taste of young meat...and of course nobody would want to lend him their children...so he would use his own brood! As BAIT!_'

"Um...those are goldfish, aren't they?"

Lily looked up. Lupin had asked her curiously, seeing that she had been gazing at the fish with sincere interest.

"I think so." She turned back towards the fountain. "They look more like guppies, actually. Colorful guppies..." Lily mentally slapped herself in the face, wondering how absurd that must have sounded.

Lupin glanced towards the fountain water. "Well, I'm not too familiar with Muggle creatures."

The redhead's eyes glimmered a bit, hearing how the boy had said "Muggle" much differently than how James Potter said it to her that morning. It was offhand – like how Severus said it in the Hogwarts Express – yet in Lupin's voice she heard a slight sense of intrigue, and fascination.

"It's okay...actually, I'm not a big fish expert either, so I guess we're even," the girl made a small attempt of humor, wanting to keep a conversation going. Lupin's small laugh seemed to encourage it as well.

"Thanks again for helping me, back at the Kings Cross..." Lily added, hoping the nice boy had remembered it as much as she did. She still couldn't believe he almost knew her last name!

"Oh, yeah, it was nothing." Lupin seemed captivated watching the dancing fish, and Lily noticed how his lips almost curved up like a 'V' whenever he grinned thoughtfully. She also liked that calmness about him - it somehow made the young face look much older.

The guppy fish leapt in and out of the water, spraying drops of mist onto the First Years' faces from the edge of the fountain. Lily wiped her cheeks in awkwardness, but loving how the cold water felt against her blushing face.

"Do you have any pets at home?" Lily asked then, as it was the first thing she could think of, seeing to fish. One of the colorful guppies made a giant leap over the water and touched Lupin's nose, and he yelped from the shock. The Hufflepuffs nearby glanced over to see what had happened, but Lily didn't mind that sudden attention at all.

She was too amused by Lupin's attempts to grab at the bright red guppy, now flipping on top of his sandy hair. He gently cupped it with his palms.

"Um...I once had a barn owl...red-orange, noisy..." Lupin tried to release the bright red guppy back into the fountain, but was stuck to his hand like glue.

Lily laughed, moving her bangs slightly to see him better. "What happened to it?"

"Oh, my dad sold it to a neighbor of ours when I was about seven. Nothing happened, I was just...allergic to it." His attention seemed to wander off at that moment, as he tried to shake the colorful fish off of his hand. The silly girl hid her amusement as she watched him carefully pick it up by the tail and drop it back into the fountain.

"How's the week been for you?" The boy sat himself onto the fountain edge, his back facing the water and the dancing fish. "Malfoy's not bugging you still, is he?"

"Not so much," Lily beamed inside, "but Black and Potter...they never seem to get tired of it, do they!" The little redhead instantly felt like she was talking to someone like Margaret, and tried hard to get rid of that exaggerated tone. She looked over to Hagrid, who sounded like he was discussing a bet with Professor Genspy.

Lupin arched one of his eyebrows, and then gave a long sigh. "Oh they're harmless." His tone didn't sound convincing enough, unfortunately.

"Um...I'd like to think so...I can't imagine having to live with them." Lily tried really hard not to sound too cruel, considering that Lupin was their friend. Of course, she wanted to feel more comfortable speaking her mind to people aside from Joyce and Margaret, but so far that only seemed to be working with Severus.

Lupin shook his head, and chuckled. "Trust me, Lily, they're both very decent people--"

"Don't they ever play jokes around you?" she couldn't resist the curiosity.

"Well...they keep telling me they're going to start a weekly prank night or something, but they've yet to do something to me."

The girl wondered if that weekly prank idea would really fall through, and -- thinking she'd never have a better chance -- dared to ask the big question.

"How did you become friends with them, anyway?" Her fingers curled, nervously, as Lupin turned his head to see Hagrid's continued conversation with Genspy, and now a Sixth-Year Gryffindor who looked familiar.

"We met up during a Diagon Alley visit early over the summer...Sirius actually introduced me to James, as they were trying to bargain ice cream prices at Fortescue's." Lupin watched a small hummingbird hovering close by them, and then turned his head to meet Lily. "I've known Sirius's family a while back, but he and James've been friends forever."

Lily nodded in understanding, and then saw a pebble move near the edge of her hand. Realizing it was her snail, she playfully ran her fingers across the spiky shell.

"I'm glad that they treat you well," she said, wishing she could feel the same way, though feeling much better that the boy was being open to her.

"Thanks..." Lupin watched her pick up the snail with one of her hands.

The little redhead smiled at him, picking up her snail once again.

"So, what were you doing here?" Lupin asked, remembering that question at the very beginning.

"Me? Oh, I'm bringing this little monster back from Transfiguration," she said simply, though she knew he had meant something else beyond that.

Lily wished she could have said more about her fascination for animals, or how she enjoyed the filtering sunlight that came from the surface...yet for some reason, her mind went blank at exactly the wrong moment.

"Right, it was MetaMorphism today, wasn't it." Lupin recollected, eyeing the snail's spiky shell a second time. He gave another sigh and looked down at the cobblestone ground.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked instantly, her mind flashing back to King's Cross Station.

Lupin raised his eyebrows peculiarly at the girl, and she saw how his forehead already carried small wrinkle lines, which seemed to suit a stressed-out Seventh Year much better than an eleven-year-old.

The boy laughed with slight relief, "Oh I'm fine, don't worry."

His voice was very calm, which came as a good sign to the little redhead in front of him. That serenity delivered a great sense of comfort towards Lily, and she knew this was a boy who clearly had much to talk about.

"Well you missed Wednesday's class too..." Lily reminded him, as a way of saying it was alright to explain anything to her ears.

"Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore have just been telling me about my treatment schedule for the term..."

"Treatment?" Lily's emerald eyes seemed to glisten over at him, as if questioning his previous 'I'm fine' comment. She didn't blink once.

He suddenly felt like he was being interrogated, and his eyes lost the glimmer they once had. "It's nothing serious, okay?"

"Alright then..." Lily dismissed the subject at his wish, with much ease, and watched a spider monkey swing along the vines with a Fifth Year's wand (the boy was chasing it exasperatingly), and she smiled . The little girl told herself that she wouldn't believe any stories except what Lupin would say to her, and somehow, she already knew that his story wasn't as bizarre as other people imagined it to be.

This place held both a relaxing and spontaneous atmosphere for Lily, and as she gazed over at the boy whom she had just struck up conversation with...she almost believed that anything was truly possible.

A giant bell ring had reverberated into the walls of the Conservatory, marking the end of the break period. Hagrid was attempting to tame the gray birds that were flying wildly every which way, and Lupin put his arms over his ducked head to prevent from getting pecked.

"Hold your bookbag over your head." Lily advised to him, clearly having had her share of pecks before. (She had a few little scratch marks on her upper arms already, but luckily, her long-sleeved robed hid them from view.)

"Thanks." Lupin said as he smacked off a bird that was diving at Lily's shoulder, and the two scurried over to the small horde of students that were lining up to leave the Conservatory.

----------

_---Snape, and his grandfather was a wizard here at Hogwarts. He's really smart, but a bit strange; yesterday, he said that he someday wants to be knighted as Noble of the Kulp Arma Defense Services...whatever that means. But we've gotten to be good friends already – it's nice to know someone else who's as big a fan of the Beatles as I am! =) There are also some new troublemakers in the school...by the names of Potter and Black...but not to worry, Mum. Professor McGonagall is a brilliant House Head and she's making sure things go quite smoothly here. Well, I better get going to bed now, but I promise I'll tell you more about this place very soon...many kisses for you and Dad! And tell Petty that I wish her the best of luck at her ballet recital this Saturday – she's wonderful. Much love from your Lily._

The little girl stood behind the door to the owlery, finishing up her letter with one dash of her quill. She felt a bit reluctant from not telling her mother about the Wisps, or about Lupin, but the girl had barely left enough space at the bottom to sign her name.

It didn't matter to her, though. Lily knew this would be the first of many letters to write.........and many chances to mention the wonderful (and horrible) people she would meet at the school. Quietly, she stepped into the owlery room that was decked with straw and smelled like an old horse-breeding farm. There were dozens of messenger owls lined up on the wooden beams, sleeping away for the night, and Lily almost chose to put off the letter until the next morning.

But an auburn screech owl saw her letter at the door, and spread its wings in a kind gesture, flying onto Lily's right arm. She rolled the little parchment up and placed it gently into the owl's beak.

"Twelve Thirty-two Campbell, Middleton," Lily whispered, and the owl instantly flew out the furthest window, waking a few sleeping owls along the way. The girl ran out and shut the door before the owls could see her.

A few prefects were monitoring the last hour before bedtime, and luckily, one of them informed her about the right staircase she should take to get to the Gryffindor common room. Lily made it past the Fat Lady's portrait with a sigh of relief, right before ill-tempered Filch began to wander the corridors.

Exhausted, she waved a 'good night' to Joyce and Margaret (who were playing cards that could deal themselves) – without looking at anyone else – and headed straight up to her dormitory. Before she even entered the vast room, her eyes rose momentarily.

A pair of fluffy, lime green slippers were waiting there for her, at the hinge of the door.


End file.
